Madrid (AFP)

The conservatives of the People's Party, who lost power in Spain in 2018 following a corruption scandal, were to make sure on Wednesday of the presidency of the Madrid region with the votes of the far right, retaining a stronghold important despite a series of electoral setbacks.

Competed by Ciudadanos (center-right) and Vox (far right), the PP, ejected from the national government by a motion of censure in June 2018, obtained in the legislative elections of April, then the municipal and regional of May, scores historically weak, although it remains the first force on the right.

But by making agreements with these two parties, he maintained practically intact his territorial power, even taking up the left-wing city halls of Madrid and Zaragoza.

After two months of negotiations, the PP candidate Isabel Diaz Ayuso was a thorny one to be invested at the head of the region of Madrid, the richest in Spain, with 6.6 million inhabitants, with the votes of Ciudadanos and Vox.

She will be the third conservative to rule a region thanks to the voices of the far right, after Juan Manuel Moreno came to power in Andalusia (south) in January, and Fernando Lopez-Miras, who heads the small region of Murcia (southeast ) since July.

Like his two counterparts, Isabel Diaz Ayuso will govern in coalition with Ciudadanos, while Vox, whose elected officials are essential for him to have a majority, remains out of the executive.

Vox leader Rocio Monasterio said her party would not support them in any case.

"We will not go back a millimeter in the defense of our voters," she promised the regional assembly.

"Our engagement with the People's Party and Ciudadanos ends where yours begins with us, ie after this vote," added the spokesperson of the ultra-conservative party, created in 2014 by disappointed PP and who settled in recent months in the Spanish political landscape.

Ms. Diaz Ayuso emphasized the commonalities between their two parties.

"Just seeing the reactions your words generate on the left (...) shows me that you and I are more united than they would like," she said.

She promised large tax cuts in the region that her party has been running continuously for 24 years, and where corruption scandals have taken many of her predecessors.

© 2019 AFP